Recently we added a beta test version of a salary database that allows users to search against player name, league, team, etc. The data within it runs from 1985 to 2008 and is based on the open source "Lahman database."

While this data has been available for sometime through Lahman, over the last year and a half we have been combing through old references such as The Spalding Guide, and old copies of The Sporting News (amazing what your local library offers,) pulling together player salary data that pre-dates the Lahman data. While we do not have salary information for every player for each year, we do have enough that it was worth putting into The Biz of Baseball's salary database.

That data is now online.

Whether it's Cy Young, or Willie Mays, or some guy named "Ruth", you can now see some of what they made to play in Major League Baseball years before the reserve clause was removed (searching will show you that Ruth made $2,500 in 1914 with the Red Sox, $80,000 in 1931 with the Yankees, and $35,000 in 1935 with the Boston Braves).

Also, we are very close to getting complete Opening Day salaries for the 2009 season -- based upon the USA Today salary database (25 man rosters) -- into the system, as well. Look for an announcement, shortly.